Common Admission Test (CAT)

Common Admission Test or CAT is a national-level management entrance exam and is to be conducted by Indian Institute of Management Indore. CAT 2020 exam is to be conducted in various cities across India on November 22. CAT opens the gateway for candidates to take admission not only in 20 IIMs but more than 1000 B-Schools across India. Candidates who are planning to appear in CAT exam must check the eligibility criteria. The application form of CAT exam 2020 will be available tentatively in the first week of August. Whereas the notification related to CAT 2020 exam will be released by the authorities tentatively in the last week of July. 

CAT 2020 will be a three-hour computer-based test. Candidates will be required to answer 100 multiple-choice questions (MCQs) divided into three major sections i.e. Quantitative Ability (QA), Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR), Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC). To make candidates aware of the CAT exam pattern, authorities will also release the mock test tentatively in the third week of October. 

As per the important dates, CAT 2020 exam date is likely to be November 22. The result of CAT 2020 will be declared in the first week of January 2021 post which the IIMs and the CAT 2020 participating institutes will undertake their selection process. On the basis of the CAT 2020 cutoff, shortlisted candidates will be called for further rounds of Group Discussion (GD), Written Ability Test (WAT) and Personal Interview (PI). Note that a Common Admission Process (CAP) will be conducted by the newly formed IIMs in order to shortlist the candidates for WAT/GD and PI rounds.

What is CAT Exam?

IIM entrance exam is the computer-based entrance exam which is conducted for admission to the business administration programmes which are offered at the 20 IIMs spread across the country as well as various prestigious institutes. The overall score of CAT exam is based on the candidate's performance in each section such as verbal ability and reading comprehension, quantitative ability, data interpretation and logical reasoning.  In CAT 2020, candidates will be asked both MCQs as well as Non-MCQ. 

IIM Indore will define the eligibility criteria of CAT 2020. Before filling the CAT application form 2020, all candidates must carefully check the eligibility criteria. Below mentioned eligibility criteria of CAT 2020 can be checked by candidates and should be considered before registration-

• Educational Qualification: All candidates must hold a Bachelor’s degree in any discipline from any recognised university or educational institute.
• Minimum Marks Required: In Bachelor's degree a minimum of 50 per cent marks or equivalent CGPA will be mandatory for all candidates. 
• Category Requirement: Candidates belonging to the reserved category {Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Persons with Disability (PWD)}, will be required to have minimum 45 percentage in Bachelor’s Degree in any discipline from any recognised university or educational institute.
• Appearing Candidates: The final year candidates who will be appearing in Bachelor’s degree/equivalent qualification exam at the time of commencement of registration and those who have completed degree course but are awaiting results will be able to apply for CAT 2020.
• Age Limit: To fill the application form of CAT 2020, authorities will not put any age limit/ age restriction.

Mode of Application : Online

Mode of Payment : Net Banking | Credit Card | Debit Card | NEFT | Paytm | Other

CAT 2020 conducting body IIM Indore will tentatively start the registration process in the first week of August. Eligible candidates will be able to fill the application form tentatively till the third week of September. IIM also provide the facility to make corrections in the CAT 2020 application form even after final submission. Registration of CAT 2020 will be completed in a three-step process which will include- CAT 2020 registration, filling the required details and submission of application fee amount. On successful registration of CAT 2020, candidates will receive a User ID and Password which can be used for future login. 

Application Process of CAT 2020

Step 1- CAT 2020 Registration
Step 2- Fill the details
Step 3- Payment of CAT 2020 Application fees

CAT 2020 Application Fee- After filling the application form, candidates will have to pay the required application fees. The fee for application will be accepted by IIM through Debit/Credit card/Net banking/BillDesk/PayU/Paytm.

 CAT Registration/Application Fee

Application Fees

Determination, planning and execution all three bounded together will positive energy will guide the candidates to the successful journey of getting in IIMs by clearing CAT 2020. Complete dedication of 6 months would be enough for candidates to crack India's toughest management exam with great marks and results. 

Candidates will have to divide their preparation strategy into smaller sections to understand the basic of CAT 2020.

CAT 2020 will be the computer-based test in which candidates will be required to answer 100 questions. Total of three sections namely VARC, DILR, and QA will be there. The types of questions will be MCQ as well as Non-MCQ questions. Given below will be the three CAT 2020 sections including the sectional durations and marks to be alloted-    

CAT Exam Pattern 2020            

Exam conducting body i.e. IIM Indore will release the mock test of CAT 2020. The practice test or CAT 2020 mock test will be released to make candidates aware of the actual exam pattern. Candidates will be able to judge their preparation on the basis of CAT mock test 2020. Complete exam day simulated ambience will be created through CAT 2020 mock test.

The total duration of CAT mock test 2020 will be three hours and it is likely to include:

• Complete exam day instructions
• Mock questions pertaining to each section (VARC, DI & LR, and QA)

Note that mock test will have sectional timing similar to what candidates will face in CAT 2020 exam.

IIM Indore will release the admit card of CAT 2020 tentatively in the third week of October. CAT 2020 admit card will be an important document as it will contain details related to CAT 2020 and candidate's personal information. Complete exam day guidelines will be mentioned on the CAT 2020 admit card. 

All candidates will be required to download the admit card of CAT 2020. Taking the CAT 2020 admit card hard copy will be mandatory for candidates. Without a hard copy of CAT 2020 admit card, no candidate will be allowed to enter the examination centre.

Note that admit card will be available only on the official website of respective IIM in the online mode. 

Before the declaration of CAT result, respective IIM will release the answer key of CAT 2020. Details related to the questions asked, along with the correct answers will be mentioned in the answer key marked in green colour to be most likely like previous years. The CAT 2020 answer key will be available to download from the official website of the respective IIM. The facility to check the answer key of CAT 2020 will be made available for only those candidates who will register and appear for CAT 2020.

The facility to raise an objection on CAT 2020 answer key will also be available for the test-taking candidates. The objection will be allowed to be raised only after paying fees of Rs. 1200 (Based on previous year's data). The same is likely to be revised if necessary.

The result of CAT 2020 will be announced tentatively in the first week of January, 2021. Respective IIM will release the result on the official website and candidates will be able to check the result of CAT 2020 in online mode only. On the basis of the result of CAT 2020, shortlisted candidates will be called for further rounds of selection by respective IIMs and other participating institutes of CAT 2020. 

For downloading CAT 2020 result, candidates will be required to enter their registration details like User ID and Password which they will use at the time of filling CAT application form 2020. Complete details related to the sectional and overall scores will be mentioned in the CAT 2020 result. Along with sectional and overall scores, percentile obtained by candidates will also be included in the result of CAT 2020.

CAT 2020 cutoff marks refer to the minimum marks or percentile that each candidate will be required to secure. Only those candidates who will qualify the CAT cutoff 2020 will be called for further rounds of the selection procedure by IIMs and other participating institutes of CAT 2020. The factors that are likely to affect the cutoff of CAT 2020 will be-

•    No. of Candidates taking the test 
•    Difficulty Level of CAT 2020
•    Availability of seats 
•    IIMs and other institutes ranking

IIMs and other CAT 2020 participating management institutes will conduct the selection procedure of CAT 2020 in two-steps. The very first step involves giving the entrance exam i.e. CAT 2020. Candidates who will qualify CAT 2020, will be called out for the second step. After releasing the cutoff of CAT 2020, eligible candidates will be called for Group Discussion (GD), Written Ability Test (WAT) and Personal Interview (PI) round. On the basis of scores received by candidates, the final selection list will be issued.